Madrid R1 previews and picks: Dimitrov vs. Carreno Busta, Isner vs. Gabashvili

Seeds Grigor Dimitrov and John Isner will kick off their Madrid campaigns on Monday. They are set for respective openers against Pablo Carreno Busta and Teymuraz Gabashvili.

(12) Grigor Dimitrov vs. (WC) Pablo Carreno Busta

One year after upsetting then-world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, Dimitrov will be back in action at the Mutua Madrid Open when he takes the court on Monday. The Bulgarian stunned Djokovic in a second-round thriller before going down to Stanislas Wawrinka. This time around, Dimitrov enters as a far more established player and the No. 12 seed at the clay-court swing’s second of three Masters tournaments. The 22-year-old is 20-6 this season with titles in Acapulco (hard) and Bucharest (clay) and he is up to a career-high ranking of 14th in the world.

The only previous meeting between Dimitrov and Carreno Busta came in the qualifying stages for a 2010 Challenger event in Marburg, Germany (Dimitrov prevailed 6-4, 6-1). Carreno Busta is also a much different player now. The 22-year-old Spaniard dominated the Futures and Challenger levels in 2013 and he is now making a name for himself on the ATP Tour. Carreno Busta owns six of his 13 career ATP match wins this season and he registers two spots off his career-high at No. 60 in the world. The wild card will be dangerous at home and on clay, but a confident Dimitrov will likely prove to have too much baseline firepower.

Pick: Dimitrov in 2

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(Q) Teymuraz Gabashvili vs. (9) John Isner

Isner and Gabashvili will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers on Monday. Their only previous encounter came at the 2011 hard-court event in Delray Beach, where Gabashvili turned the tables on Isner in a third-set tiebreaker and pulled out a 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(13) victory. The Russian is in resurgent form three years later. He qualified for Monte-Carlo and reached the second round before advancing to the quarterfinals in Barcelona with an upset of David Ferrer in the process.

On the other hand, Isner has not played much clay-court tennis in 2014. The 6’10” American was defending a title in Houston last month but lost his opening match to Dustin Brown. This is his first foray onto the European red stuff this year. Isner has been extremely inconsistent of late, but a title in Auckland and a semifinal showing in Indian Wells still have in the top 10–right at 10th in the world. The No. 9 seed has been successful on clay in the past, but he has not had much recent practice on it and Gabashvili’s confidence only increased with successful qualification over the weekend.

Pick: Gabashvili in 3

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